MR SEDDON ON ENGLISH TRADE.

Otago Witness, Issue 2539, 12 November 1902, Page 11

MR SEDDON ON ENGLISH TRADE.

(From Our Own Corhebpondent.) LONDON, September 13. On Monday last the Daily Telegraph published the following: — Apathy! Apathy in regard to the danger ■which threatens the supremacy of Great Britain as a manufacturing country is the most striking impression I havo received on my visit. So spoke the Right Hon. R. J. Seddon, Premier of New Zealand, to our representative on Saturday -when asked, on the eye of his departure, what was his most striking impression of the Homeland. tet Seddon touched on some other- important points. Slimmed up his advice, after a study of the conditions prevailing in this century, is: — Adopt up-to-date ideas and machinery; establish confidence between workers and employers; develop the resources of the Empire. " I can only attribute the British manufacturers' apathy to the theory that every one has been so absorbed in the stirring political events of the last few years that the welfare of the essential strength of the nation— its trade and commerce — ha j been for the moment neglected. " British manufacturers are too conservative. They hang on to obselete machinery.. There they have a burden which no effort of the working man can shake off " Old-established firms in their newest factories are handicapped by the absence therein of up-to-date machinery and appliances, which other countries obtain. " There are exceptions of course. One is the firm of Messrs Harland and "Wolff, Belfast. I found that even there they have some antiquated machinery; still, their success can definitely be traced to the up-to-date appliances they possess. "The conference recently held on the Continent respecting the iron and steel industry supplies food for home leflection in regard to this matttr. " There is an equal danger in respect to the manufacture of cottaa goods. America has the advantage of growing the ra.v material She is sparing no effort to ba.k up that advantage by investing in and experimenting with new machinery. " Consequently, she is already seriously encroaching on our trade preserves. She is ' poaching ' on us in the Pacific Islands and in the colonies, and I shall not be surprised to find her, before long, sending manufactured goods to the Old Country instead of the xaw material. " If the cotton manufacturers of my native county would, with th?ir traditional Lancashire ■virility, visit America, it would pay them well. They would there discover that if they are to keep abreast of the times they must go on the lines which are being adopted and laid down in the New World. " Every effort must bo made to establish facilities lor cultivating the raw material

within the Empire, as well as for manufacturing it by the very latest methods. That is the gist of my warning and my complaint. Therein lies the apathy I behold. " Now, as regards the labour and arbitration questions, which you have had before you bo prominently in London this week, one of the first things to be done is to establish confidence between workers and employers. " This is not, I imagine, a difficult problem to solve. It only wants interchange of confidence, conciliation, and information. Then capital and labour will work harmoniously togther, as I am happy to say they do in New Zealand. " I noticed the other day that the New Zealand correspondent of The Times gave a short quotation from an article in a New Zealand paper, nob a Ministerial ox Labour organ, asserting that labour organisations in New Zealand have taken steps to deny that such harmony prevails. " But I take this opportunity to deny absolutely that the present condition out there is that of an armed truce between labour and capital. " The labour organisations are asking for only a slight amendment of the arbitration and conciliation law. Really,, they regard that act as their sheet-anchor, and I am .pleased to say. that the employers also have every confidence in the existing labour legislation. " I have no fear but that America 'will adopt New Zealand's labour legislation, and then the Old Country will follow suit, as she is generally the last to do. " On the' subject of Imperialism, I think that the people- both of ths colonies and the Mother Country are even more deeply impressed with its advantages than are the authorities who represent them." These expressions have elicited a response on behalf of the class denounced by Mr Seddon. The Daily Express on Tuesday had the following : " Some large employers of labour do not agree with the word 'apathetic ' used by Mr Seddon in describing the condition of British industry. *It is not apathy,' said one; 'there is little or no apathy — though there may have been in the past. We see that we have to meet dangerous l-ivals, and we are doing it — in our own way. A great deal has been said,' , he wen', on, 'about the importance of introducing the very latest machinery. America, we arc told, is far ahead of us. But all the leading firms are quite alive to the importance of this, and are increasing the amounts put to reserve for renewals. AH concerns, in fact, would like to be up to date, but many have to consider a very important factor— capital. Thousands of pounds' worth of machinery cannot in a moment be thrown away. More particularly is this the case with limited liability companies floated at fictitious values. They have no money to spend on new machinery . Here, no doubt, progress is very slow. 1 " Messrs Armstrong, Whitwortb, and Co. state that the moment a machine embodying a practical improvement is placed on the market the firm introduce it whether the machine supplanted has been at work a month only or year?. The entire remodelling of Messrs Stephenson's shipyard at Hebburn-on-Tyne and the changes in the engineering, shipbuilding, and colliery concerns in which Sir' Christopher Furness is interested are other instances of the advantage that is being taken in -this country of the latest improvements. In Barrow the newest tyrje of American blast furnaces are

now in use and doing good work, and othet innovations are being made. Messrs. Vie- . kers, Sons, and Maxim are • completely reequipping "many of their shops in this dis- , triot. Not many firms in the world could have built, engined, armoured, and armed tho cruiser King Alfred." Again, according to the Express, "Mr, Seddon's ideas of British industry are cording in for some criticism." It remarks :< "»' I agree very largely with Mr Seddon's advice to us through the Express to wake up,' said Sir Joseph Lawrence, M.P., ' but I am bound to say that men whb only get; a. passing and superficial view of what is going on should not generalise. There is no doubt that in the iron and steel industry Germany and America have shot -ahead of us enormously, but it does not follow that England is going to the dogs 'because of that. British manufacturers arc not as ready as American? and Germans to relegate) old machinery to the scrap heaps, but 'they are well aware of the advantages of modern! machinery. Moat well-known firms are now sending representatives abroad picking upideas and making use of them.' Sir Joseph, who has just returned from a visit to several countries in 1 Northern Europe., added )thab an agent of the Linotype Company, who>' had visited 30 different works in Germany,' had found that. in many places most. careful. " records of what is' being done in this' country are kept. One firm had elaborate details of the Linotype Company's business, including even the new appointment of a manager and the visit of their representa-" tive. Other firms were similarly indexed. " ' We have leeway to make up,' utid Sir Joseph, 'but there are now a great many minds on the alert, and I don't think there is need to fear that we shall go back.' " The Express adds: "Mr E G. Constantine, president of the Manchester Association! - of Engineers, who has recently been to the - States to make a study of engineering works there, thinks that in spite of the advantage.; the American ironmasters possess, there ia - no reason to be d>.3pondent about British Itrade. He adds that representatives of , American firms admit that it is their tariff which enables them to hold their own. Another gentleman, who has been a goocl deal in America and on the Continent, says that long credit brings trade of a kind. ' Two years with some Continental films,' he says, 'is not uncommon. Sometimes thi offer is 25 per cent, down and the rest when you can get it. We prefer to "be " apathetic." ' Asked how it was that tlm mining machinery of the Rand is nearly all: American, the same authority said that the States had been longer in th" field than., Britain in this kind of work, but that it was a rough class at best, and so long as Home makers could get something better to do they were quite satisfied."

The Lyttelton Times stateß that ProfessoS Bickerton has brought to completion cxi tensive schemes for turning his property^ Tahuna Park, at New Brighton, into a place for open-air amusements for the general public. Bicyclists should never start out with* out a bottle of Chamberlain's Pain Balm hi their tool bags. This liniment i 3 excellent for all flesh wounds and sprains. One( application give* relief. , Tit it. All deaden sell it. '